So, I’ve left it a little while again since my last catch up, I will get better with these and try to go back to doing them weekly! Although at least I have stuff to write about, so here are some of the things I’ve been up to lately…

San Diego

Obviously, the highlight of my life since my last one of these was my trip to San Diego. I went to visit my friends Ivette and Davis and, erm, to see Tool play again. I’ve been to the USA to see Tool play twice in the last three months (the first time was Monster Mash Festival on Halloween), does that make me a superfan? Whatever, you can read about the Tool gig here.

I’ll no doubt have lots of San Diego posts coming up, since I have so much to say about San Diego (especially the food) but one thing I did while I was there this time, which I’ll mention as often as I possibly can, was my trip to La Jolla Cove to see the sea lions, which you can read about here.

The day after I came back from San Diego I went with friends to see Panic! at the Disco at Brixton Academy. It was okay. The occasional song took me back to my teens, but I knew none of their new stuff. As usual though it was lovely seeing Luisa have a great time, she loves her pop punk!

The Museum of Happiness

Last weekend I spent Sunday with my friend Kat, just a day doing random stuff. We started with the Museum of Happiness at Old Spitalfields Market. Which did not make me happy. The opposite in fact. Which is quite an achievement since I’m usually quite upbeat.

I understand the concept – the intention was to provide an educational and experiential place for people to learn about achieving long term happiness and wellbeing. I guess where it went wrong for me, is that what makes me happy doesn’t quite match up to what makes the people behind the event happy.

Happy times for me are spending time with people I care about, just hanging out with a drink and preferably some live music (are you getting why I like festivals now?) or chilling out doing nothing but enjoy their company. Pretty simple really.

Happy times for the museum organisers seem to involve silent discos (I can’t dance and I don’t like most music you have in silent discos), meditation, jumping in ball pits (okay, I’ll give them that one, ball pits once in a while can be kind of fun), popping bubble wrap, colouring in (I will never understand the current obsession with adult colouring books) and, erm, writing lists of the things that make them happy.

So basically we were working at crossed purposes.

Lumiere London & Metal to the Masses

Sunday evening Kat and I headed to Kings Cross to check out some of Lumiere. It was packed, we didn’t see much and we basically gave up quite early on. If you are interested in Lumiere, take a look at my Blogger BFF Luisa-Christie’s post here. She went on the Thursday and saw a lot more than we did!

I’ve stolen her photo of the fish tank phone box, because it’s my favourite of the installations I’ve seen…

Photo from www.eatsleepluisarepeat.co.uk

We had originally planned to go to the Bloodstock Metal to the Masses night at nearby Nambucca, but gave up on the idea when our friend who suggested it couldn’t make it. But since Lumiere was a bit of a cop out, we decided to give it a go.

If you haven’t heard of Metal to the Masses, it’s a battle of the bands type competition, with the winners getting to play at Bloodstock Festival. It’s regional, and I used to go to the Midlands ones. Turns out the London one is, surprisingly, much less of an event. We missed the first band, but quite enjoyed Bearfist when they played. I’m not going to talk about M2TM much because I wasn’t as attentive to the bands as I usually would have been.

Triaxis & Metaprism

Friday just gone I went to Boston Music Room in Tufnell Park to see my friends in Triaxis play their final gig with their current line up, as Clare and Giles are leaving the band to focus on other things. It was a little bit emotional, and I’m a little sad as Triaxis have been around and on my radar for so many years now, I’m always seeing them at gigs and festivals, and I’ve been lucky enough to get to know Clare and Krissie. But hopefully now they won’t be playing I might have a chance to spend more time with them, so silver linings and all that.

Metaprism opened for them (although I should mention that Pythia were the nights headliners, although I didn’t watch them). They weren’t bad. Very enthusiastic.

So that was basically everything worth mentioning since last time. I have a crazy amount coming up this week, so will have lots to say come next Sunday…

When Tool announced their Western USA tour dates for 2016, I couldn’t resist a sneaky weekend to visit my friends in San Diego to coincide with their San Diego date (9th January 2016 at Viejas Arena), haha!

I had no luck getting a ticket, they sold out pretty quickly, and were straight on Stubhub, some even up for thousands of dollars! But I managed to call in a favour which was lucky since I’d already booked my (very cheap!) flights.

3 Teeth, a band completely new to me, opened. And they were awesome. I’d not heard of them before they were picked by Maynard to accompany Tool on tour (allegedly he met 3 Teeths vocalist at a wedding and they became friends), but I will definitely give them more attention from now on! Their sound is quite dark, industrial, and interestingly they have no bassist – using keys and samples to fill the gaps. Definitely worth checking out.

Just like at Monster Mash festival, which I attended last Halloween, Primus joined Tool on this tour. I think they’re a good warm up for Tool really, although I would have been interested in seeing a different band rather than the same combination again. And I guess the focus on the bass with Primus was a nice contrast to the bassless 3 Teeth!

Yet again, Primus brought the giant mushrooms on stage with them, haha! They also made good use of the huge video screen behind them, showing home movies, random animations, and other videos during their set. For ‘Mr Krinkle’ Les Claypool wore a pig mask – I did hear he did that for Monster Mash too, but I missed it that time.

Since seeing them at Monster Mash, I’ve listened to a lot more Primus and I enjoyed their set a lot more this time around. Now knowing their back catalogue a bit better I can tell you that they mostly played really old stuff, I think all but one song was before 1995s ‘Tales From The Punchbowl’. They closed with one of my favourites of theirs – ‘Jerry Was A Race Car Driver’. Pretty sure this was the same setlist as at Monster Mash? If not, it was VERY similar.

So, Tool. Another flashback to Monster Mash, since they opened with Led Zeppelins ‘No Quarter’ again. And the deja vu carried on for the rest of the show – the setlist was EXACTLY THE SAME. Oh, except this time they missed out ‘Ions’. I mean I had heard that they don’t vary their setlists much, but really?

I know I sound like I’m complaining, but lets face it, I was there for the experience and I can never hear anything Tool do enough times so I was still a happy bunny. I can’t remember if I mentioned this in my Monster Mash post actually, but both times they did play some new material, which has the working title ‘Descending’. I liked it.

Unlike Monster Mash, this time we were treated to an elaborate laser light show – seriously, I have never seen lights so perfectly timed to the music. When you add this to the incredible sound, intricate artwork and video concepts, it was pretty much the perfect show. They may be samey, but Tool have their performance perfected. And what Tool fan really cares about samey?

So chances are I might go back to the States for Tool again in the not too distant future, who knows. Although I’d much rather they come to London, it’s a bit easier on my bank balance.

Last time I was in California, in October, I meant to visit the (now closed) Donut Bar in Orange County, because I’d heard great things, but didn’t get round to it. I hadn’t realised there was another (the original) Donut Bar in San Diego so was crazy happy when my friends took me there for breakfast donuts!

Donut Bar has a menu which changes daily, and is written on a chalkboard at the shopfront (it’s also uploaded daily onto their Facebook page).

They do sell out though, and queues can be long, so it’s best to get there early! Luckily it wasn’t too busy for us on a Friday morning, but I am told it gets pretty bad! You can place a order here to pickup the next day though.

On the day I visited the menu was quite varied, featuring everything from a basic $1 ring donut to a $5 Monte Cristo (if you don’t know what a Monte Cristo is, it’s a deep fried ham and cheese sandwich – now imagine that in donut form…).

I was surprised at how Vegan friendly Donut Bar was – they had four Vegan options which were clearly marked. There was a basic ring, a creme brulee, an apple fritter, and the one I went for – the Strawberry Split. At $4 this spectacular donut, I’m told, is one of the ones that put Donut Bar on the map. Seriously, look at it. It’s ginormous, and delicious, and I would never have guessed it was Vegan. I’m trying to find out what the cream substitute is but so far I’ve not had any luck.

Another donut, I just have to mention is the Big Poppa Tart Donut. Costing $4, the Big Poppa Tart weighs in at a huge 1lb, and has a whole pop tart in the centre. On the day I visited three flavours were available – S’Mores, Strawberry and Blueberry. Try this one heated up…

Next time I want to try the Jim Beam Maple Bourbon…

Donut Bar also have an outlet in San Diego airport Terminal 2, and I may have had a takeaway box for the plane…

La Jolla Cove really is beautiful. It’s a popular spot for swimming and snorkelling because the high cliffs mean there is rarely high surf. There was on my visit mind you, as San Diego was recovering from El Niño (a strong band of warm water in the Pacific Ocean near the equator increasing the likelihood of rain storms), and there were plenty of surfers taking advantage of it!

The small cove inside the cliffs has a white sandy beach, and you can often find sea lions there, or on the rocks. The cove was originally meant as a protected swimming area for children, but it attracted the local wildlife.

There does seem to be an ongoing argument as to whether the sea lions should be removed as they’re apparantly multiplying quite rapidly. Personally, I’m on the side of the sea lions – why mess with nature just so kids can go swimming?

Above the cliffs is a lovely big grassy area, the perfect picnic spot. I definitely plan on returning to La Jolla when the weather is a bit better.

There is so much more to see and do there than just observe the sea lions, so watch this space!

So, this was the highlight of, and the real reason for, my USA trip – seeing Tool. Finally. The one (surviving) band I needed to tick off my bucket list. I have wanted to see Tool FOREVER. And since it didn’t look like they’d be coming to England soon, I figured I should just go to them. And what better way to spend Halloween than seeing Tool?

Thanks to a heavy night with some Canadians and too much Jack Daniels in LA the night before I actually nearly didn’t make it to Phoenix for Monster Mash (and I think it’s pretty obvious I’d have been devastated if I hadn’t!). But I got there, just in time for Primus! I was a little disappointed to miss With Our Arms to the Sun and ÆGES, but I have noone to blame but myself for that.

The Music

I’ve never really got into Primus, I was supposed to be going to one of their Primus & The Chocolate Factory UK tour dates but that didn’t quite go to plan so I was looking forward to seeing them at Monster Mash.

I started off heading toward the front of the crowd, but I figured I’d probably get more out of it if I stood back and took it all in, since their vocals are generally a bit mumbly anyway so it wouldn’t matter too much if I lost a bit of clarity. And they had lit up mushrooms on stage, so it was nice to look at.

So I settled down cross legged on the grass in front of the giant screen in the food court. More about the food court in a minute because it was a total game changer.

I enjoyed their set a lot, although as expected it was a little self indulgent in parts.

By the time Tool came on at 10pm, the venue was packed. PACKED. I’ve never been in such a crammed crowd. 30,000 people in a not very big park all around one stage. There were people standing on bins, climbing up trees… security had their hands full.

Again I started off near the front, but it was little me surrounded by lots of much bigger guys so I basically saw a load of backs. So I found a little space on the grassy hill to one side, which was much better. Sound wasn’t great at this venue if you go too far back, so I was happy I got lucky with a good spot.

Tool opened with Led Zeppelins ‘No Quarter’, with Maynard dressed as Robert Plant. Check out this image from Puscifers Instagram…

I couldn’t really see much of the band themselves though (so if I hadn’t seen the Instagram I wouldn’t have noticed the costume!) as the screens were only showing graphics (yes they were awesome graphics and lights but still). Straight after they finished the opening song, Maynard said ‘Thank you, good night!’, and left the stage. Awkward.

Obviously they weren’t going to leave it at that but there were some people around me who genuinely seemed to think they would. Admittedly I could kind of see Maynard doing that…

Anyway, they came back. And it was awesome. It did feel pretty special hearing Maynard sing ‘Learn to swim, I’ll see you down in Arizona Bay’ during the Bill Hicks tribute ‘Ænema’, since we were in actually in Arizona Bay and everything.

I don’t usually post setlists, but this is Tool, so for anyone interested; No Quarter, The Grudge, Parabol, Parabola, Opiate, Schism, Ænema, Descending (I think that’s just a working title for now), Jambi, 46 & 2, Vicarious, Ions, Stinkfist.

I had hoped to hear something from Lateralus. So I was happy.

Vendors

I didn’t really have time to check out the vendors.

But I did make sure I stopped by the 98KUPD stand where my friend was working. Rob Zombie was the next days headliner and the radio station were running a competition to win a gorgeous red motorbike with Rob Zombie artwork.

They let me sneak behind the barriers to take a closer look, check out the details!

Food

You’ll have seen in my posts about Aftershock and Knotfest that I’m always impressed by the food at American festivals. But they were nothing in comparison to Monster Mash – it had a great little food court with really interesting options, a nice clean grassy area to sit in, and big screens showing what was going on on stage. Perfect.

After doing about three circuits of the food court, I finally settled on a gyro. It was possibly one of the best things I have ever put in my mouth. Seriously.

And I had a vodka spiked black (mixed berry) lemonade. Bit bitter but different.

The Venue

I don’t know how I feel about Tempe Beach Park really. It has some really great points – the main stage sits in a sort of bowl, so the grassy knolls surrounding it make for a great view. You can actually see and hear quite well from even outside the park, I noticed on my way in that if you stood next to the road at the perimeter it was a better experience than some people had inside. And there were a lot of people taking advantage of that.

The facilities at the park are great too. Actual proper toilets. Additional portaloos too, but mostly actual toilets. And it was a great layout, to allow for separate areas for vendors, food and the stage.

It just couldn’t really cope with 30,000 people. For a smaller event I think it’d be great.

I had such an amazing time at Monster Mash, even if I only managed to make it for a few hours. And I will definitely put the effort in to see a Tool show again, the sooner the better!

I also met some awesome San Diegans on the walk back to my hotel, who bought me In N’ Out!

We had really great seats, I was 2 people away from the barrier at the walkway, and only 4 people away from the actual ring. So my view was fantastic!

To be honest, I kind of get lost as to what’s going on but the gist I got was that following the pay-per-view Hell In A Cell they needed to determine the new challenger for Seth Rollins WWE title after he defeated Kane, and there was some kind of fallout from Bray Wyatt’s assault on The Undertaker. Or something like that.

After a bit of a dull intro from Triple H and Stephanie McMahon, in which they went on a bit about being proud of Seth Rollins, Triple H explained a rather convulated method of picking the contender for the title. The winners from Hell In A Cell had to compete in a series of singles matches, with the winners taking part in a four way show finale (a bit over complicated for me, I wasn’t sure how they determine a single winner of a four way?).

I’m no sports writer by a long shot (and I had no idea what was going on half the time which is probably obvious from this rambly post) so I won’t detail the fights. At all.

This was quite fun to watch, with Kevin Owens and Alberto Del Rio seeming to work together at the start, focusing on getting rid of Dolph Ziggler. It made its way down to just Kevin Owens and Roman Reigns at the end, with Roman winning and becoming Number One Contender for Rollins title. It was a really action packed match, and I’m told it was a really good episode of Raw so I think I got lucky!

Aside from the contenders matches, there were of course sidelines. There was a recap of the Hell In A Cell clash between Brock Lesnar and The Undertaker, and Renee Young interviewed Zeb Colter about his unexpected partnership with Alberto Del Rio.

There was a fun six man tag team match between the Dudley Boyz and King Barrett, Rusev and Sheamus – who I think were the Hell In A Cell losers? It was just a brawl basically but good to watch.

Bray Wyatt had a little monologue about taking on Roman Reigns and The Undertaker – which was interrupted by Kane who was in turn overcome by the rest of the Wyatts.

As expected, the Divas were one of the highlights for me – we had a fun match between Team PCB and Team Bella, with a big of an intro with Team PCB promising to work together. This lasted until the end of the match, at which time Paige turned on Charlotte and Becky. Predictable. Oh yeah, Team Bella won.

I had such a great time at Raw, my only disappointment was that my favourite, Randy Orton was missing! Hopefully he’ll be at the Raw in London in April.

Okay, so this isn’t technically food or even at all interesting but it’s my favourite drink and hard to come by in England, so I had to give the massive bottle of grape soda I drank on the drive from San Bernardino to San Diego a mention. I must have drunk about 8 litres of this in a week!

Look at my pale legs…

Anyway, we skipped breakfast, as the plan was to hit a restaurant featured on Man Vs Food – Phil’s BBQ for lunch. Obviously, Phil’s is deserving of its own post, so watch this space!

But you can have a little sneaky peek of my main course…

Unsurprisedly, we didn’t really need dinner, but since I’m always hungry I picked up a teriyaki chicken bowl and huge slice of red velvet cake from Ralphs supermarket (while hunting for somewhere I could buy Ole Smoky Moonshine that I drank at Knotfest) to eat on our patio.

The chicken was kind of dry (it doesn’t even look great in the picture…) but the cake was amazing. Oh and that Mike’s Hard Black Cherry Lemonade pictured? Not bad. Which is lucky since we had a whole box of them.

Day Five – San Diego

Skipped breakfast, again. Which is crazy, because I’m obsessed with American breakfast restaurants! Anyway, I met up with one of my favourite Americans, Ivette, at the Fashion Valley Mall where she works, for lunch at The Cheesecake Factory. I love, love, love The Cheesecake Factory.

I’m one of those annoying people who finds something they like at a restaurant and orders nothing else. But this time I thought I’d try something new. I started with the Pretzel Crusty Chicken.

Theis was pretty much perfect, the pretzel coating was crisp and the chicken breast inside was moist – and both dipping sauces (honey mustard and ranch) went really well with the hint of pretzel flavour. These may have over taken my usual Crispy Fried Cheese as starter of choice…

And instead of my usual Teriyaki Chicken I went for Orange Chicken. I first had orange chicken at Chin Chin Cafe inside New York New York in Las Vegas about ten years ago (holidaying in Vegas with my parents, haha!) and loved it, it’s like a better version of sweet and sour. Now I have it somewhere every time I go to America (usually Panda Express though!). This was the cheaper, smaller lunchtime portion – but there was nothing small about it, it was so filling.

I was pretty full by the time I was done with my main, but it was October and that means pumpkin so I couldn’t not have cheesecake! Pumpkin Pecan is my cheesecake of choice, and I stuck with it, with no regrets!

Oh and I also had Hibiscus Lemonade – never tried that before!

And then later I went to Starbucks and had the Very Berry Hibiscus Refresher (my favourite). I have a real thing for hibiscus at the moment. I blame Ivette.

Another night where we didn’t really want dinner, but we went to Buffalo Wild Wings and it was wing night so I ended up with wings… Only four though, in Asian Zing (chilli, soy and ginger) sauce. Oh, and pretzels with queso because y’know, I’m Austrian and go crazy for soft pretzels. And I’m now sitting here craving them and that spicy, cheesy dip…

Beer cocktails are new to me, but I thought I’d give the Strawberry Kickin Coronarita a go. Now I need more beer cocktails in my life.

And I finished with a raspberry lemonade when I’d had too much beer…

Day Six – San Diego & Los Angeles

A day that I finally had breakfast! And it was the breakfast I’d been looking forward to – at Broken Yolk Cafe, another Man Vs Food featured eatery! You’ll have to wait for it’s own post for details. I had a Mexican twist on an eggs benedict.

Dinner at Saddle Ranch Chop House will also need its own post. Yeah, I know, why did I even bother including day six, haha! And yes, that is marshmallow on my side dish…

There was a lot of marshmallow in that meal!

After dinner we went on to Rock and Reilly’s for drinks. I tried one of the Beer Flights – the Mutations which had the following; Black Velvet (Guinness atop of champagne), White Velvet (Kilkenny atop of champagne), The Mick Dundee (Guinness atop of ginger beer) and Black/Blue (Guinness atop Hefeweizen). The Mick Dundee wasn’t for me (ginger isn’t my thing), but the rest were good.

We then moved on to more drinks at The Viper Room, but there are no photo’s and everything gets a little hazy after that!

So that’s days four to six, watch this space for the next instalment! If you haven’t seen part one, you can check it out here.

After spending Saturday at Aftershock, which you can read about here, we made the 6 hour drive from Sacramento to San Bernardino for Knotfest (who knew California was so big?!)

The Music

We arrived a little late so missed some of the earlier bands but made it in time to catch a little Cannibal Corpse. After that we skipped the music for a bit to check out what else was around.

The line up for me later in the day was basically the same as that at Aftershock. Clutch were excellent, again. A MUCH bigger stage for them this time.

Bring Me The Horizon played the exact same set that they did at Aftershock, and got pretty much the exact same crowd reaction. I’m still surprised that they’re so popular in the USA (not that it’s not well deserved) and also that Americans don’t know Chelsea Smile. But maybe the lack of knowledge of their older stuff is more of a new fan thing, rather than an American thing? Whichever.

After the little bit of a disappointing show at Aftershock, Slipknot were back on form at Knotfest. It seemed much more of an enthusiastic performance, from Clown in particular – he actually walked through the audience at one point. And I was happy that they changed up the set list.

The sound at San Manuel Amphitheatre, in the actual fixed main stage area, is excellent and I think that made a massive difference. I actually really like the way the main stage is set up – it has a semi circular pit area (on concrete – ouch!) with tiered seating behind, both of these areas are for premium ticket holders. General admission ticket holders can watch from the lawn area at the back – but with the MASSIVE screens, that is by no means a bad view. I’ve been in both the pit area and the seats (because I’m a bit pathetic and girly and also sometimes my feet hurt) for varying bands, and both were great.

As usual, apologies for the awful/lack of photography. Taking pictures just isn’t at the front of my mind when I’m watching a band. I know I need to improve on that…

Knotfest Museum

Despite being at Knotfest for the whole weekend last year, I managed to miss the Slipknot Museum, and this year I got lucky – I didn’t realise they were closing it at 7pm on the Sunday, and I managed to be the last one in!

It’s basically a circus tent with a load of Slipknot paraphernalia (with no explanations), curated by the band themselves from their own collections – old jumpsuits, masks, art, previously used equipment etc.

I’ll leave you with a few photos.

Outside the entrance are frozen goat heads on spikes – I was so lucky that, just as I was about to kiss one for a selfie, one of the security guys pointed out it was real…

Here’s the outtake, haha!

Vendors

One thing that struck me about Knotfest 2015 was that it was almost exactly the same in terms of layout as it was in 2014 – even the majority of the vendors were the same.

Quite a lot were generic festival stalls, and having browsed similar at Aftershock I didn’t spend too much time on them.

I did buy the most me tshirt ever from the Bring Me The Horizon merch stand though. It’s a really colourful sublimated print with the umbrella motif, new for this tour. I absolutely love it.

VIP Area

Like with the vendors, the VIP area was the same as last year, even down to having the same (very good!) Mexican food truck. The only real addition this year were clown statues, and not particularly Slipknotty ones.

I like the VIP area at Knotfest a lot. It is handy to be able to access it – unlike Aftershock, Knotfest has no real shaded areas in the main arena, so the sun can get a bit overbearing. The VIP area has a lot of gazebos and covered areas. It also has a pool table, sports on TV and a decent bar.

It is however a lot more expensive (about $100 more I think) to upgrade to a VIP ticket, but I think if you can afford it (especially if you aren’t used to the heat, like me!), do it.

Food

Last year, as it was my first American festival, I was really impressed with the quality of the food. The choice wasn’t huge – basically Mexican, Chinese or Italian, but it was all really good! And it was EXACTLY the same this year. I won’t talk about the food anymore really, other than to leave a pic, as I posted in details about what I ate here.

And I really like the drinks on offer at Knotfest…

Camping

Now, I didn’t actually camp at Knotfest this year, but I did last year, so I wanted to stick in a little section about that experience. It was completely different to camping at a UK festival – well, general camping anyway. It follows the format of VIP camping at UK festivals, where you camp next to your car. Except you pay for a camping pass per car, rather than per person, and it allows for up to 6 people. I think it’s around $120 per car. You can see here how idyllic the setting was! It did get surprisingly cold at night though.

Other Stuff

Knotfest had a lot of other attractions on offer. I didn’t have time to see them this year, but they were repeats from last year so I didn’t miss out. They included the Ring of Fire ride, flaming carnival games, the Thunderdome fighting arena and steel drums. If you’re interested you can read more about them here.

Overall, Knotfest is a great festival, and a must do for a Slipknot fan. But I do think that once you’ve been once, you don’t necessarily need to go again. I think I’ll give it a miss next year for an alternative event.